The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a simulated corned beef.
A corned beef, commercially available in Japan and some countries in the world, and distinct from a simulated corned beef to which the present invention pertains, is often manufactured from a mixture of beef, pork, lamb and horse meat. Prior to these livestock meats being mixed and filled in a casing such as a can or any suitable container with seasoning and fatty substances added, they are, after having been treated by curing and boiling, loosened by the use of a pressure-applying roll or a mixer to provide isolated texture fibers. This may be considered distinct from a genuine corned beef which is manufactured by packing into a can a lump of cured and boiled beef, neither the tissue of the beef being loosened nor the fatty substance being added.
The simulated corned beef according to the present invention substantially corresponds to an analog of the first mentioned corned beef.
As is well known to those skilled in the art, the manufacture of a corned beef is complicated and time-consuming. By way of example, during dressing of a livestock meat, for example beef, removal of bones, muscular membranes, tendons, excessive fat and blood vessels is required. Moreover, the curing of the livestock meat usually takes three to five days even when loosened texture fibers of the meat are employed as a principal component of the product.
In addition, time-consuming preparation and blending of chemical substances to provide a definite curing agent or a pickling solution, maintenance of the curing temperature and over-hauling of the meat being cured are also required. Furthermore, subsequent to packing and sterilization of the corned beef, it is a customary practice to shake the can to avoid the possibility of fat being locally biased as the meat packed within the can cools. Even though this shaking operation is performed, the amount of fat that can be added to the meat is limited to up to 20% relative to the weight of the meat used or 15% relative to the total weight of the corned beef product. The addition of the fat in an amount in slight excess of 20% of the weight of the meat used may not result in deterioration of the pleasing taste and mouth-feel of the corned beef, but the corned beef, when removed out of the can, would be unpleasant in appearance because of the presence of the fat biased in the meat.
In terms of economy, since a substantial amount of drip tends to be produced during the boiling of the meat, the yield of the corned beef product relative to the raw meat tends to be limited to about 60% and, therefore, the corned beef product is expensive as compared with most other meat products.
In view of the above described complications and drawbacks involved in the manufacture of the corned beef, the use of an inexpensive meat-like protein product, hereinafter referred to as a meat analog, has been tried. In most cases, however, the meat analog is used as a meat extender for extending an animal meat, such as beef or a mixture of two or more of beef, lamb, pork and horse meat, which is used as a principal component of the corned beef. The use of the meat analog does not contribute to quality improvement of the corned beef. By way of example, where spun fibers manufactured by the known wet spinning process such as disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 2,730,447 are employed as a meat analog, care is required to entangle the spun fibers with isolated texture fibers of the meat since they are inherently incapable of providing a meat-like sensation similar to that provided by the isolated texture fibers of the meat. For effecting entanglement of the spun fibers with the texture of the livestock meat, the material, i.e., the spun fibers and the livestock meat, is, after having been cured for a substantial period of time, ground to allow actomyosin to be extracted from the livestock meat and, then, by the utilization of a binding power exhibited by the actomyosin, the spun fibers are allowed to be entangled with the texture of the livestock meat. Mere mixing of the spun fibers with the livestock meat does not provide a sufficient entanglement of the spun fibers with the texture of the livestock meat.
Moreover, since each of the spun fibers lacks a fibril, which is one of the minute fibrous elements making up such fiber, a fat holding capability is limited and, therefore, the resultant corned beef mixed with the meat analog is such that fat is locally biased.
In an attempt to provide an inexpensive corned beef product, we have previously developed a simulated corned beef mixed with a fibrous soy protein product of fibril structure having a random orientation, which fibrous soy protein product is hereinafter referred to as fibrillated protein fibers. Our prior invention described above was assigned to the same assignee of the present invention, and is disclosed in a patent application filed in Japan on June 17, 1975 under No. 50-74001 and laid open to public inspection on January 12, 1977 under Publication No. 52-3852. According to our prior invention, the simulated corned beef is manufactured by treating the fibrillated protein fibers by adjusting the water content thereof to about 70%, the pH value within the range of 5.0 to 6.5 and the length thereof to 5 to 30 mm., adding a seasoning agent to the treated fibrillated protein fibers, simultaneously heating and stirring the treated fibrillated protein fibers until the water content thereof becomes 50 to 65%, mixing with the heated fibrillated protein fibers an emulsion comprising a fat or water, a proteinaceous material and fat and oil, with or without the addition of loosened fibers of a livestock meat, and packing into a casing and sterilizing the resultant mixture. In our prior invention, a seasoning agent, a flavoring agent and a coloring agent are applied to the fibrillated protein fibers separately of the emulsion.
The simulated corned beef of our prior invention is satisfactory in many aspects as compared with the conventional simulated corned beef comprising a mixture of spun protein fibers and an animal meat such as beef, pork or horse meat. However, since the various seasoning, flavoring and coloring agents are added separately of the emulsion, the manufacture thereof is somewhat time-consuming and care is required to provide simulated corned beef products which are manufactured at different times by the use of different batches of emulsion, but which can give a uniform taste and appearance attributable to some or all of the seasoning, flavoring and coloring agents.